Morning all! You've all been very busy, I still need to get started wasn't feeling too well over the weekend and had to work yesterday. So I am counting today as Day 1 of my holiday. Just gave the seed people a call and I will return parcel number 2, I really don't have room to plant everthing twice really, but it is tempting to keep the second poly tunnel and the plastic tomato grow bag thingummies..

I've got Kyra today, she's bored with me, was planting seed and she just stood there staring at me willing to take her out I guess. Do all Airedales shuffle their feet like moody teenagers when they're bored?? Will take her out to the lotty before the rain gets started, maybe she can help me dig . I am finally going to plant something! The parsnips ala Susiq, potatoes, some herbs and the rhubarb. The rest will have to wait till I get my paving tiles in and the soil dries up a little bit.

Indeed strange those 4 idle chat threads, we've had 2 for a couple of weeks now, might drop a note to the moderator to remove them, must take up quite a bit of space having the longest thread on here 4 times!

Agree with Sue Lillyrose, I had great results with my sweetcorn the year before last, but last year, wasn't so good, they really do need a lot of sunshine, up here I have to keep mine under glass the whole season - too many cold winds I think.

I would definately have kept quiet Eva, why can't you tell them that you've sent it back, maybe it will get lost in the post!

Yes Richard, I'm hoping to grow tomatoes in the polytunnel, if its ever finished in time! I've got a load started off in the greenhouse which I will transfer over. I want to grow a lot more cucumbers this year too, for my pickles. Same about your car Richard, but if its costing more to keep than you use it, I guess it makes sense.

Has your concreting been finished yet Sue, or has it still been too wet? Its been pouring non-stop since yesterday here, thankfully none of the white stuff tho'!

Hi all we went grocery shopping this morning it was a nice day. This afternoon I walked up the post office to post my car tax off for a refund-there was 4 months left on it. When I was half way there it bucketted down I was drenched from head to foot and had to change all my clothes when I got back.

Lillyrose, I think I copped for your thunderstorm. Hope more chillies will come for you I have just the one that has germinated so far also. Did you take any pics while you were at Sissinghurst Phot's? I have not been there.I tried to grow sweetcorn once Sue and had no luck with it. It was when I just started gardening and planted the seeds straight in the ground...duh!I need to start off some more toms Susiq also. I may have a go at the moneymaker ones that came free in the post. I have already planted some white tomasol and Aunt Madge that Sue kindly gave me.Hope you a feeling better now Eva -at least you haven't got to go to work for a while.

I hope it hasn't been raining heavily in Hereford BB!

That was in interesting Blog Miranda, glad you had a good time away - pity you didn't have your camera handy.

You'll have a few more chilli seedlings come up tomorrow lillyrose now that they've started coming up

It's good to hear you haven't had any snow yet Susiq. It's been far too wet here to even contemplate the concreting and the next couple of weeks don't look any better either, we will have to wait until we are forecasted a good couple of days without any rain or frosts.

I've grown 'Moneymaker' before Richard and got on ok with them although I must admit that some other varieties have a lot more flavour. My freebie ones are 'Gardener's Delight', I sowed some on the same day I received the seeds and potted the seedlings up a couple of days ago.

You are ahead of me Sue I need to be catching up. I bought some more sweet pea seeds today to try again as the ones I saved from last year did not come up. I also bought some allysum,trailing lobelia,mesembryanthemum and aubretia seeds from Asda/Wilkinsons

You'll have fun with those seeds then Richard Last year, I didn't have much luck with sweet pea germination from seeds I'd saved from the year before, only about a quarter of them came up so I bought new seed for this year and still only got about the same germination rate.

Thanks for telling me that Sue it is worth planting many more than you want by the look of it. I will count the seeds that I plant and see how many will germinate. I will need to soak them first I believe.

Yes Phot's particularly for those of us with small veg growing areas, it is a shame that it is so hard to obtain decent results with sweetcorn, especially here in the north. My son managed to grow a few on the field but it was hardly worth the effort or space...although what they did get tasted superb! Mind they didn't plant in blocks Sue1002 and we would not have room to do that here at the cottage. Did anyone else happen to see "How It's Made" recently on the Discovery channel? If you have ever wondered how they process sweetcorn for canning (and haven't we all?), it was all there in detail, from harvest to tin in about three hours. There is a clip of it on YouTube although someone has dubbed Czech speak over the English commentary.

There is something about the old favourites "Money Maker" and "Gardeners Delight" that is sort of dependable to me. Of all the types I have planted MM & GD this year are the only ones which have achieved 100% germination rate. I absolutely agree Sue1002 that they don't have the flavour of some of the others but hey at the rate we use them we also need reliability.

Intriguing stuff about the long tailed tits Miranda. I have watched them a lot here although they have never actually "come a knocking". They must be one of the most gregarious of our feathered friends.

It is brilliant Lillyrose when you see the first of anything poke its little green bits through the compost/soil, but especially where I am concerned with chillies as they can according to one or two posts herein , take half the season to germinate.

Well, we have had an enoooormous amount of rain overnight accompanied by near gale force winds but fortunately as yet no snow.

Morning all, it's another wet one here and very, very windy, I'd better check in a minute to see if the coldframe is still there.

I don't have very much veg growing space either Roundelder and usually manage to squeeze the sweetcorn in with the broad beans as once the broad beans have finished, I cut them down to ground level which gives the sweetcorn a chance to grow.